Many industries utilize plastic (i.e., synthetic material) environmental body suits, which are worn by workers for protection from hostile environments and/or substances, or for reducing contamination from the workers themselves in “clean rooms.” As such, the exteriors of such suits oftentimes become tainted from workplace contaminants. Additionally, because such suits are largely self-contained and closed to the outside environment when worn, and because the synthetic materials used to make the suits do not “breathe” or absorb liquids to much of an extent, the suits tend to become interiorly soiled from human sweat and grime. Accordingly, the suits have to be both washed and dried on the inside and outside after use.
The process of cleaning environmental suits and other garments can be quite lengthy and circuitous. For example, at an industrial site (nuclear facility, laboratory, factory, etc.), once the suits have been worn or have become otherwise soiled, they are removed by workers in a changing area. From the changing area, the suits are bundled together in bags. Then, the bags of suits are somehow transported to a cleaning or laundering facility, which may involve loading the bags onto trucks for transportation to a remote site. Once at the cleaning facility, the bags are opened, the suits and other garments are sorted, washed, dried, and otherwise processed, and are then re-bagged, loaded back onto trucks and transported back to the facility. Once back at the facility, the clean suits have to be lugged back to the changing area, sorted (if needed), and unpacked onto shelves for storage and later use by workers. As should be appreciated, all this packing/unpacking and loading/unloading can take a considerable amount of effort, especially if much of the process is done by hand. Furthermore, even if wheeled racks or bins are used to aid in the process, they are typically not sturdy enough to stand up to heavy industrial applications and truck shipping.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a mobile rack that can be used to both transport soiled garments, and to transport and store sorted, clean garments.
Another primary object of the present invention is to provide a mobile rack that is optimized for transporting soiled garments from an industrial plant to a remote cleaning or laundering facility via truck, and for transporting clean, sorted garments from the remote cleaning facility back to the industrial plant.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile rack that is particularly well-suited for heavy industrial use and for truck shipping.